Measuring the Global Research Environment: Information Science Challenges for the 21st Century

“What does the global research environment look like?” This paper presents a summary look at the results of efforts to address this question using available indicators on global research production. It was surprising how little information is available, how difficult some of it is to access and how flawed the data are. The three most useful data sources were UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Research and Development data (1996-2002), the Institute of Scientific Information publications listings for January 1998 through March 2003, and the World of Learning 2002 reference volume. The data showed that it is difficult to easily get a good overview of the global research situation from existing sources. Furthermore, inequalities between countries in research capacity are marked and challenging. Information science offers strategies for responding to both of these challenges. In both cases improvements are likely if access to information can be facilitated and the process of integrating information from different sources can be simplified, allowing transformation into effective action. The global research environment thus serves as a case study for the focus of this paper – the exploration of information science responses to challenges in the management, exchange and implementation of knowledge globally

Exploring the notion of quality in quality higher education assessment in a collaborative future

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate on the notion of quality in higher education with particular focus on ‘objectifying through articulation’ the assessment of quality by professional experts. The paper gives an overview of the differentiations of quality as used in higher education. It explores a substantial piece of evaluation research which was carried out between 2009 and 2011 by the authors at the Institute for Work Based Learning at Middlesex University

2017 The Role of Books and Reading in STEM: An Overview of the Benefits for Children and the Opportunities to Enhance the Field

In April 2017, STEM Next, in partnership with the Hoag Foundation and the Molina Foundation, commissioned the Institute for Entrepreneurship in Education (IEE) and the Caster Family Center for Nonprofit and Philanthropic Research at the University of San Diego to provide an overview of literacy learning within the disciplinary context of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). This overview includes (1) a literature review on the benefits of integrating literacy and STEM for elementary and middle-school-aged children, (2) an environmental scan of reading programs, organizations, and materials that focus on Literacy in STEM, and (3) a set of criteria for identifying high-quality STEM reading materials and programs for school-aged children both in school and out of school.https://digital.sandiego.edu/npi-youth/1001/thumbnail.jp

Preface

DAMSS-2018 is the jubilee 10th international workshop on data analysis methods for software systems, organized in Druskininkai, Lithuania, at the end of the year. The same place and the same time every year. Ten years passed from the first workshop. History of the workshop starts from 2009 with 16 presentations. The idea of such workshop came up at the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics. Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and the Lithuanian Computer Society supported this idea. This idea got approval both in the Lithuanian research community and abroad. The number of this year presentations is 81. The number of registered participants is 113 from 13 countries. In 2010, the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics became a member of Vilnius University, the largest university of Lithuania. In 2017, the institute changes its name into the Institute of Data Science and Digital Technologies. This name reflects recent activities of the institute. The renewed institute has eight research groups: Cognitive Computing, Image and Signal Analysis, Cyber-Social Systems Engineering, Statistics and Probability, Global Optimization, Intelligent Technologies, Education Systems, Blockchain Technologies. The main goal of the workshop is to introduce the research undertaken at Lithuanian and foreign universities in the fields of data science and software engineering. Annual organization of the workshop allows the fast interchanging of new ideas among the research community. Even 11 companies supported the workshop this year. This means that the topics of the workshop are actual for business, too. Topics of the workshop cover big data, bioinformatics, data science, blockchain technologies, deep learning, digital technologies, high-performance computing, visualization methods for multidimensional data, machine learning, medical informatics, ontological engineering, optimization in data science, business rules, and software engineering. Seeking to facilitate relations between science and business, a special session and panel discussion is organized this year about topical business problems that may be solved together with the research community. This book gives an overview of all presentations of DAMSS-2018.DAMSS-2018 is the jubilee 10th international workshop on data analysis methods for software systems, organized in Druskininkai, Lithuania, at the end of the year. The same place and the same time every year. Ten years passed from the first workshop. History of the workshop starts from 2009 with 16 presentations. The idea of such workshop came up at the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics. Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and the Lithuanian Computer Society supported this idea. This idea got approval both in the Lithuanian research community and abroad. The number of this year presentations is 81. The number of registered participants is 113 from 13 countries. In 2010, the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics became a member of Vilnius University, the largest university of Lithuania. In 2017, the institute changes its name into the Institute of Data Science and Digital Technologies. This name reflects recent activities of the institute. The renewed institute has eight research groups: Cognitive Computing, Image and Signal Analysis, Cyber-Social Systems Engineering, Statistics and Probability, Global Optimization, Intelligent Technologies, Education Systems, Blockchain Technologies. The main goal of the workshop is to introduce the research undertaken at Lithuanian and foreign universities in the fields of data science and software engineering. Annual organization of the workshop allows the fast interchanging of new ideas among the research community. Even 11 companies supported the workshop this year. This means that the topics of the workshop are actual for business, too. Topics of the workshop cover big data, bioinformatics, data science, blockchain technologies, deep learning, digital technologies, high-performance computing, visualization methods for multidimensional data, machine learning, medical informatics, ontological engineering, optimization in data science, business rules, and software engineering. Seeking to facilitate relations between science and business, a special session and panel discussion is organized this year about topical business problems that may be solved together with the research community. This book gives an overview of all presentations of DAMSS-2018

Introductory programming in higher education: A systematic literature review

A systematic literature review was performed on 33 papers obtained from the ACM, IEEE and Sciencedirect databases, in order to understand in depth, the introductory programming discipline (CS1) in higher education. Recently published works have been covered, providing an overview of the teaching-learning process of introductory programming and enabling to find out whether the research developed by universities worldwide is in line with the proposals made by ACM/IEEE-CS group for computer courses, regarding the transition to the competency-based model. The results show that the new techniques/technologies currently used in software development, as an example of agile methodology, has influenced the teaching-learning process of CS1 together with methods such as visual programming and e-learning. The analyzed papers discuss the importance of developing not only technical, but also social skills, corroborating that methodologies used in introductory programming courses need to focus on preparing students for an increasingly competitive market, associating new skills with technical aspects.This work is supported by CIEd – Research Centre on Education, Institute of Education, University of Minh

European Reoffending Research Project: Action Learning Set 1

The overarching aim of this project is to evaluate processes and procedures implemented to reduce reoffending rates through coordinated targeting of resources at offenders with the greatest criminogenic needs. Within this remit, the role of the Action Learning Sets is to increase mutual understanding and cooperation between the trans-national partners (Knowsley MBC, Merseyside Police, Municipality of the Hague NL, European Research Institute of Turino, Italy and MALS Merseyside) by testing different methods for reducing reoffending and reflecting on lessons learned. This first Action Learning Set was crucial to understanding the baselines, or starting points, of the partners in the European Reoffending Research Project. The research team explained the project methodology and each partner then provided an overview of their current contexts and provisions. These are summarised below